The present invention relates to commerce, and more particularly to authentication of a purchaser at a point of sale.
In a transaction in which a user charges payment to an account rather than paying cash, the merchant may seek to authenticate the user's identity before allowing the transaction to proceed. One way to do this is for the user to show a government-issued picture ID, such as a driver's license. In credit card transactions, another way is to have a photo of the user permanently embedded in the user's credit card, so the user shows the photo when the user presents the credit card for payment. The merchant can look at a government-issued ID or at a photo embedded in the user's credit card, and, by comparing the image with the appearance of the user, the merchant can know with a fair amount of certainty that the user is who the user says he is.
Authenticating a user may also be beneficial in an “m-wallet” (mobile wallet) transaction. In an m-wallet transaction, a user presents a properly equipped wireless handheld device, such as a Bluetooth-enabled mobile telephone, as a form of payment for goods or services. Typically, a merchant system will communicate wirelessly with the handheld device, to acquire payment information, such as a credit card or checking account number. To a merchant, however, it may be difficult to determine whether the user of the handheld device is an authorized user or an unauthorized user (such as a thief). This poses a risk to the authorized user of unauthorized charges on his account, and further poses the risk to the vendor that the authorized user will later repudiate unauthorized transactions and request charges to be refunded.